Chloë by Marcus LaGrone Read Free Book Online Page B

quite well.”
    “Yes
indeed, sir, eh.. Llewellyn!  They did an excellent job and it is a
perfect fit.  They seem to take quite a lot of pride in their work.”
    Llewellyn
smiled broadly, “You should tell them that in person.  They always like
hearing that.  Especially from lowlanders.  Everyone there seems to
take pleasure in precision over accuracy, if you know what I mean.”
    Chloë
nodded, “Then I will be sure to do that next time I’m in town.   What
of the others that Tobias was going to confront?  I hope things went more
smoothly than the first.”
    Llewellyn
looked hurt, “Um, I thought Heather did an awesome job.  Wasn’t that
smooth enough?”  He fired back to his own question with a broad grin, “And
yes, the others went smoothly.  Two were detained, the third left
willingly.  I think he realized things were going to be a bit rougher than
he planned.”
    “Um,
sir, may I ask a question?”
    Llewellyn
just stared at Chloë like she had lost her mind and stuck out his tongue.
    “Oh,”
giggled Chloë, “ Llewellyn , may I ask a question?”
    “That’s much better,” he replied with a broad grin.
    “I
know Heather is really awesome in hand-to-hand, and I imagine you are even more
so, but how can you afford to be so cavalier around firearms?  I’ve heard
mention of Live Steel in passing, but honestly I’m none the wiser.”
    “Do
you want the touchy-feely answer, or the overly technical answer?” 
Llewellyn asked with a gentle grin.  That was nice—no sarcasm, no
melodrama.
    “I
guess a bit of both, actually.”
    “Excellent
choice!  Heather, hand me a short sword!”
    Heather
held out her hand over her father’s and then winked at Chloë.  There was a
sharp blast of blue sparks that erupted from her hand in a blink of the eye
formed into the outline of a simple, double edged short sword.  Just as
quickly the blue sparks were gone and the blade fell from Heather’s hand into
Llewellyn’s.
    “Whoa!”
exclaimed Chloë, “That is both impressive and a little spooky!”
    Llewellyn
offered a fatherly smile, “The humans have basically theorized that the weapons
are stored in a ‘pocket dimension’ that is just slightly out of phase with our
own.  Items can be brought back and forth across this boundary and provide
a method for storing a vast array of items.  We commonly say ‘Live Steel,’
but that is just a name.  The items can be wood, metal, liquid, just about
anything that the operator is comfortable with.  The blue sparks are an
artifact of the two dimensions racing past each other and then slowing, giving
off optical radiation in the process.”
    “Čerenkov
radiation,” chimed Chloë, happy to understand at least one aspect of
what was going on.
    “Exactly!”
smiled Llewellyn.
    Heather
stuck her tongue out, “Bleah!  Physics… heavy on the ‘icks’”
    Chloë
giggled. No matter what was going on Heather, always seemed to be able to make
her laugh.
    “Now
the fun part is, the weapons themselves are just a projection, their mass and
other material properties are variable.  Thus it is possible to change the
mass, momentum and even the kinetic energy in real time.  Very handy.”
    “Dad
has tossed grav tanks at people before!” beamed Heather.
    “Ultimately,
it is all just a projection into our existence and one need not invoke
the weapon.  One skilled enough can just focus on the desired results and
not on any particular manifestation of a physical device.”
    “You
have to be five flavors of awesome to pull that off,” interrupted
Heather.  “Dad, however, is seven flavors of awesome!”
    Llewellyn
laughed and tousled Heather’s hair, “My own minister of propaganda here! 
Anyway, to lick the fur the other way, Live Steel is a projection of one’s
mental image of weapons and armor that materializes on our plane.”
    “And
armor?” asked Chloë, bright eyed and curious.
    “Armor
up, girl!” beamed Llewellyn to Heather.
    “Dad!”
came